<em>Following the Spanish-American War, nations in the Caribbean and Central America were deeply in debt to European nations.
</em>
The Spanish-American war had its origins in the Cuban fight for independence from Spain, in February 1895. The Spanish-American War really started in 1898. It was a conflict between the U.S. and Spain. Spain was defeated and it ended its colonial rule in the Americas. Fort he United States, it implied the acquisition of new territories in the region.
The US troops intervened in the Spanish Caribbean colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico. The U.S. became a powerful country with those new territories and the islands of Hawaii, in the Pacific Ocean.
